Down Your Drain

By Connor Seavey

Wash the demons down your drain

Never to be seen again

Where do they go

When you’re done with them?

What are we without them?

The night is long

Long enough for yearning

Crawling slowly

Toward something else

Close the door

Lock the bolt

Wash the demons away

What do they say?

Can you hear them?

Leaving the body one at a time

Each ache better than the last

Currents

Moving through you

From the scalp to your fingers

Is this how you want me?

Will you take me now?

As I am?

Down your drain

The demons swirl

Laughing all the way

The work is not done

Much to your dismay

Black night

Lurching to blinding day

Will it ever be the same?

Can we ever return

To what we once were?

The demons say no

But the work is not done

Coddle the demon

But don’t look in their eyes

Before you slit their throat

They take on new faces

Those you’ve seen before

Your mother your father your sister your brother

Lay them to rest now

Your mouth breathing fire

Your tongue spewing venom

Floating

Floating

Floating

Whipped now

Again and again

Until there is nothing left

No remnants

No place-keepers

Watch your breath return

Eyes focus

Daylight breaks

You see clearly

For now, at least